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Using Airtable as a Static Image Host in 2023

  • February 15, 2023
  • 3 replies
  • 113 views
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Now that Airtable has deprecated static URLs for image attachments (or at least will some time in March or whatever), server side generated apps that use Airtable as a CMS backend can't use Airtable for image hosting anymore. Instead, combination solutions such as hosting images on aws s3 and putting image URLs in Airtable is necessary. This is because the URL provided by Airtable for an image attachment "expires" after a few hours, and a sever side generated app is "hardcoded" with the expired URL.

I have a client that's not interested in two part solutions like this, and wants their CMS backend in one place. Is there a paid feature to switch back on static image attachment URLs permanently? This was a really easy, user-friendly way (especially for non devs) to have a CMS backend.  If not, I'll need to investigate another CMS backend solution for my client.

 

    3 replies

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    • paulo12
    • Participating Frequently
    • 26 replies
    • November 19, 2023

    Hello. The solution to this issue is dependent on using a third-party application that integrates with Airtable. miniExtensions provides an extension specifically designed for this scenario:

    https://miniextensions.com/airtable-attachments-to-urls/.

    This extension creates non-expiring URLs for your Airtable attachments.

    O
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    • Oniedott
    • New Participant
    • 1 reply
    • November 6, 2025

    I ended up moving to nextcloud hosting. It’s been way easier to manage image URLs there, and I don’t have to worry about links breaking randomly. I just drop the image in and get a direct link that actually stays the same. No weird expiration stuff or having to right-click around in dev tools to find a usable URL.

    ScottWorld
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    • ScottWorld
    • Genius
    • 9788 replies
    • November 6, 2025

    For static image URLs that don’t change every 2 hours, you must host your images with an external cloud provider.

    However, you can still view those external images within Airtable’s interfaces.

    Here are the 2 steps to take:

    Step #1. You will need to move your images from Airtable to a cloud hosting provider like Google Drive, then store the publicly-accessible URL to that file in an Airtable URL field.

    You can do this very easily by using Make’s Airtable integrations along with Make’s Google Drive integrations.

    You can also choose any other cloud hosting provider that you’d like, because Make natively supports over 3,100 apps.

    Here is an overview on how to move your attachments from Airtable to Google Drive.

    If you’ve never used Make before, I’ve assembled a bunch of Make training resources in this thread. For example, here is one of the ways that you could instantly trigger a Make automation from Airtable. 

    I also give live demonstrations of how to use Make in many of my Airtable podcast appearances. For example, in this video, I show how to work with Airtable arrays in Make.

    Step #2. Configure your Airtable interface to display external images.

    Airtable has a new feature in interfaces that can automatically display externally-hosted images (i.e. images hosted at external URLs) as images within Airtable.

    This requires setting your URL field to “view only” in your interface.

    Once the URL is set to view only, there is an option to display external images.

    Hope this helps!

    If you have a budget and you’d like to hire the best Airtable consultant to help you with this or anything else that is Airtable-related, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consultant — ScottWorld


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